Amya Petitioning Faustus for the Custody of Saint Mamas
Jean Cousin the Elder French
Not on view
The obscure child martyr at the center of this composition was born in the second century in a Cappadocian prison to a father who died just before his birth and a mother who died just after. The local widow Amya was instructed by a divine vision to petition the governor for permission to adopt the child and to give his parents a Christian burial. The drawing is a rare work by Cousin, one of the most original artists of the French Renaissance. He was active as a designer of tapestries, stained glass, book illustrations, and ephemeral festival decorations for the French court. The Museum's sheet is related to a lost tapestry from a series of eight, only three of which survive. Illustrating the life of Saint Mamas, the series was commissioned in 1543 for the cathedral in Langres, in northeastern France. The energetic and spontaneous style, free underdrawing, and lack of finish suggest that Cousin was formulating his ideas when executing this sheet.
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